Welsh Journals

English Descant and a Source of Vernacular Music Theory from Medieval Wales STEPHEN P. REES Whether in relation to music of the present or the past, the interaction between musical theory and musical practice is rarely straightforward. The study of music theory of past western traditions has generally followed one of two paths: either the study of individual theoretical writings themselves, as representing a state of musical knowledge during a given period or periods, or the reconciliation of such theory with contemporaneous musical practice.2 However, two prob- lems immediately present themselves when attempting to study the relationship between indigenous music and vernacular theory in Wales before the eighteenth century: first, the dearth of extant music, and second, the nature of much of the writing on music which does survive. The earliest extant indigenous secular music is the harp tablature of the 'Robert ap Huw' manuscript.3 Apparently copied in 1613, it is a relic of the declining bardic tradition of poetry and music maintained by the patronage of the uchelwyr (nobility). In the late sixteenth century, both social and economic factors were already conspiring to bring an end to the structures and, to a lesser extent, the products of bardic society. Oral transmission was the norm for both poetry and music, and it is likely that this exceptional survival of notated music was due to a desire 'to perpetuate knowledge of a moribund art'.5This art was termed cerdd dant ('the music of the string'), as opposed to its counterpart in poetry, cerdd dafod ('the music of the tongue').6 Thus, although the music was written down towards the beginning of the seventeenth century, there is every reason to believe that some of its contents had originated considerably earlier than the date of its copying might imply. What, then, of music theory in Welsh? There is a considerable corpus of material dealing with the measures of cerdd dant, which consists mainly of extensive lists of the titles of various mesurau or